The Anthropocene question requires a return to reflections on an elementary but formidable problem: that of subsistence, that is to say that of the way in which human societies ensure, through the use of resources, the organization of collective life and organizes what geographers call the ecumene, that is to say the material basis of the space of social life. It is understandable that capitalism was founded on the idea that nothing could and should not oppose a systematic exploitation of the resources of the land, the soil, and even the biosphere. For two centuries, everything has been done to ensure an infinite abundance of resources, a pledge, it is said, of progress, growth and freedom. Within the framework of this instituting imagination, the geopolitical control of the territory is obviously one of the keys to development.

We meet to discuss the material basis of capitalism, the impact of this ideology of extraction and exploitation on the planet and the prospects for reorienting the relations of political and economic actors and inhabitants to the materials extracted, two major thinkers of this question. The philosopher Pierre Charbonnier and the jurist Jedediah S Purdy.

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With :

• Pierre Charbonnier (France), philosopher
• Jedediah Purdy (USA), professor of law at Columbia Law School

Hosted by :

• Michel Lussault (France), géographer, director of the École Urbaine de Lyon

languages available for this sequence: English / French

This sequence will be broadcast live on ecoleanthropocene.universite-lyon.fr.

To ask your questions and interact with guests, go to: Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, or write to us at: ecole.anthropocene [at] universite-lyon.fr